Hello friends,
How is your day treating you? Good I hope!
It makes us so happy that everyone is loving our t-shirts!!!!! We are so excited for them and think they will be great for everyone to wear and enjoy 
Hard to believe the Fitbloggin is only a few weeks away. Michelle and I got so much work to do from now till then.
Continuing on with the whole fermenting food and drinks videos that we have been doing here lately. Today is all about kombucha! Michelle fell in love with kombucha at school when she learned how to make it!
You probably have seen us drinking this brand here
on our blog a few times or two.. we like to call it our favorite cocktail 
Synergy is the brand, and you see it out in your stores and if you do not have the time to make kombucha yourself. But I promise making your own kombucha is not that hard! And makes it more affordable when you make it yourself!
Michelle had mentioned all the great benefits of kombucha before here and we have made it before on blog here.
There are just so many great health benefits about drinking this fabulous drink! I really think incorporating this drink into one’s lifestyle would not hurt because many people lack ‘healthy’ bacteria in their diets! A simple natural fermented aged culture, made with pure water, sugar and black or green tea. Kombucha is a probiotic. Pro = in favor of; biotic = life. Kombucha balances the pH naturally. Pro-biotic drinks are good for us, they aid digestive health and they give our digestive system balance. Probiotics – means “for life.” It is used to describe products which include microorganisms that are beneficial to health.
And once you drink kombucha a few times you will start craving the flavor and taste. It is sour and can be fizzy!
We find it a much better choice over regular sodas on the market because of the health benefits from drinking kombucha! So go give it a try if you have not already!
Now we are not experts but we have been making our homemade kombucha for a few months now and absolutely love it and know that if we can do it anyone can do it!
Here is the video of Michelle showing how we make our kombucha! Enjoy!
Now we purchased our Mother Scoby from Cultures of Health. They also sell kits that includes mason jars and strains!! But the Kefir lady sells them too. It comes with directions. And the mother comes in a packet on ice. Just place the mother in the fridge till you are ready to place it in tea. Only use pure black or green tea nothing with flavors.
As you will see in this video Michelle splits a baby from the mother, you do not do this with the one you buy. After your first batch you separate the two to make two batches, and the cycle continues with each scoby.
Like the music??? We are getting fancy over here, haha.
Have fun making your homemade Kombucha!!! You can flavor any way you like once it is done fermenting.
Recipe:
For One quart you will need
- 1 1⁄2 t. loose tea or 2 tea bags
- 1/4 c. sugar
- 3 1⁄4 c. (approx.) water
- some starter tea from your previous batch (or first kombucha does come in tea)
For Half- gallon
- 1 T. loose tea or 4 tea bags
- 1⁄2 c. sugar
- 6 1⁄2 c. (approx.) water
- 1 c. starter tea, although we never do that much
Brew the tea with sugar to dissolve. Let it cool to room temperature before adding scoby. Put scoby in mason jar, with whiter side up, and cover with cheesecloth. Leave on counter at room temperature, out of direct sunlight for at least 5 days. We let ours ferment from 10 to 30 days. The longer it ferments the less sugar.
News:
St. Patty’s day is coming fast. And in honor of the great fun holiday we are going to be offering sales on our ‘green’ product line and offering some special extra treats for the holiday like mint chip macaroons and green cookie!
We will posting those new items up on our store here soon and we will let everyone know when the sale on our green crackers and flat breads will be going on for.
Till next time,
Lori
The Twins
L&M
{ 30 comments… read them below or add one }
Question for you; can kombucha be made with herbal tea?
No Julie you cannot use herbal tea. Just black or green tea. The aromas, florals, and all in herbal tea do not do well with the bacteria.
I can’t wait for some green goodies for St. Patty’s Day! I’ll be ordering, for sure.
And I love fermented foods/drinks. I think it’s so fascinating how they work. Bacteria that is actually great for the body, and how they break down the food into an amazing edible meal for us to enjoy (with Tahini, of course!). Yum.
Ha, I’m sipping my Synergy Kombucha right now! Strawberry… interesting, but good.
Ha ha – love the shirts!!
I don’t know why I fear making homemade kombucha so much. It’s really not that labor intensive. Perhaps I’m scared mine won’t taste as good as my beloved $4 Divine Grape.
Oh Heather you can always flavor your kombucha grape ; ) Or who knows you might create a new flavor!!
Ohh what a fun post!!! Kombucha is so expensive to buy at the store!! My friend makes her own at home too!!!
Have a great night!!!!!!!!!!! xoxo
Thanks Katie have a great night too!
I’ll admit, I’m a little scared of fermenting my own kombucha, but at 5 bucks a bottle for Synergy, I should probably give it a try!! I love all your how-tos…it always motivates me to get creative in the kitchen!
Thanks Gabriela, yes I was scared of fermenting at first but now I cannot get enough ; )
No Julie you cannot use herbal tea. Just black or green tea. The aromas, florals, and all in herbal tea do not do well with the bacteria.
Should add excellent post. Looking forward to reading your next post!
WOW! this looks great! ive never tried this- i heard it was something your tastes had to acquire tho! it sounds great!
Yes Katie it can be an acquired taste. At first I did not like it, but there are tons of flavors our there, but now I love it.
This is really cool. I will admit, it does seem a little scary that there is a “mother” and “scobies”. I love kombucha, though, so sometime I might have to try this. I have a couple questions, though:
Do you add any flavorings to yours when you make it?
Is it ever possible to get “bad” bacteria from this? I read somewhere about that, but maybe it’s not true…?
What’s the purpose of the sugar? Is it okay to use another sweetener?
Sorry about all the questions.As always, love the how to.
Yes Audrey it can be scary but once you do it once, you will see it is easy. We flavor ours after it is done fermenting. In the video I added fresh ginger. We have lemon, lavender, etc. You can add fruit if you want. I have heard from others asking about getting the bad bacteria, but I have not had any problems, nor do I know anyone who has, so….you just have to make sure the area is clean when working with bacteria. And just watch it fermented. The sugar is the food for the bacteria. It is what makes it grow, and no other sweetener would work. We use organic cane sugar, and let it fermented for a long time so the bacteria eats up all the sugar.
Wow! This is so interesting, I never even considered making it at home. You guys are so awesome!
when you say you can flavor it? can you mix it with fruit juice and stuff?!?!
Jessica, yes you can add fruit juice to them. Just have to wait to after they are doing fermenting and you have removed the scoby.
I can’t thank you ladies enough for turning me on to Kombucha… it’s a wonderful source of probiotics that’s low in sugar and calories… Definitely love it soooooo much. Your lessons on how to make it are so easy too. Thanks!!!
Good tutorial. And it looks like one of you likes watching TV while the other one is taping
Using your information and some stuff I read on other sites, I made my own kombucha, and am now a proud parent of several scobies. It’s really not that hard to do. Also, if you do a search for “kombucha mold” online, you’ll find a number of pictures and websites that show kombucha gone bad. I feel better knowing what to look for in a bad batch. So far, I haven’t had one.
I have a question for you. From your opinion, Which probiotic drink is better, kefir or kombucha? Thank you before.
Hello Kefir Grain Lover – Well honestly they are two different drinks. In the fermented drink world we prefer kombucha the best, next up would be kefir (we love coconut kefir). Hope this answers question. Either one would be a great addition to anyone’s diet.
How much of our how brew should we be drinking for optimum health?
Kristy, good question. If you are new to fermented drinks like kombucha start small and over time increase your amount. I would start with 1/4 cup and increase to 2 cups a day. I drink anywhere from 1 cup to 2 cups a day. But I have been drinking kombucha and other fermented drinks for a few months now.
Hey that’s no way to treat the mother in you second video. First you separate her from the child and then you disregard her shame on you lol jk. Is their a way to preserve the mother? I would feel bad disregarding her since she helped with keeping the body healthy with good bacteria.
Al you can reuse the mother about 5 times when making the kombucha (that is what I was taught).
Pure2raw,
I read that you can use the scoby from a bottle of unpaturized, raw drink (like the store bought Synergy kombucha)to start the process going instead of buying the “mother” online or at a health food store. Have you tried that???
Sherri
Sherri – no we have not tried that, but I guess it would work. Just might take it a little longer to form a scoby, but not really sure.
I am anxious to try it myself. I have made fermented pineapple, wheatberries, and quinoa. I
It is possible to grow a scoby from the drink only – I did, because I forgot to add a scoby to a batch (!) but it was VERY thin after 10 days, but it worked, and got thicker by the next batch… I also make Kombucha with a mix of black tea, green tea and Black Currant tea – and it is amazing! When you have enough scoby’s do some experiments! I don’t count how many times I use my scopy – just reusing them. I have been making Kombucha for 2.5 months by now…And given away lots of them…Happy brewing for everybody!
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